The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns

Name: The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Author: Attributed to Orpheus

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The HymnsXLV. Hymn of Dionysos Bassareus Trieterikos · Lines 1–7

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XLV. Hymn of Dionysos Bassareus Trieterikos · Lines 1–7

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Ancient Greek

p. 156

XLV. ΥΜΝΟΣ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΥ ΒΑΣΣΑΡΕΩΣ ΤΡΙΕΤΗΡΙΚΟΥ

Ἐλθέ, μάκαρ Διόνυσε, πυρίσπορε, ταυρομέτωπε,

Βάσσαρε καὶ Βακχεῦ, πολυώνυμε, παντοδυνάστα,

ὃς ξίφεσιν χαίρεις ἠδ’ αἵματι Μαινάσι θ’ ἁγναῖς,

εὐάζων κατ’ Ὄλυμπον, ἐρίβρομε, μαινόλα Βάκχε,

θυρσεγχές, βαρύμηνι, τετιμένε πᾶσι θεοῖσι

καὶ θνητοῖσι βροτοῖσιν, ὅσοι χθόνα ναιετάουσιν·

ἐλθέ, μάκαρ, σκιρτητά, φέρων πολὺ γῆθος ἅπασι.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XLV. Hymn of Dionysos Bassareus Trieterikos

p. 157

XLV. Hymn of Dionysos Bassareus Trieterikos

(no fumigation named)

Come, blessed Dionysos, born of fire, bull-fronted,

Bassaros and Bakcheus, of many names, all-mastering,

you who rejoice in swords and in blood and in the holy Mainads,

crying euhoi over Olympos, loud-roaring, raving Bakchos,

thyrsos-speared, heavy in wrath, honoured by all the gods

and by mortal men, as many as dwell upon the earth;

come, blessed one, leaper, bringing much gladness to all.

Title.No fumigation rubric, and the heading is ΥΜΝΟΣ + genitive rather than the bare genitive used for most of the collection. That is the fifth hymn with both anomalies — after I (ΕΙΣ ΕΚΑΤΗΝ), XVIII (ΕΙΣ ΠΛΟΥΤΩΝΑ), XXIX (ΥΜΝΟΣ ΦΕΡΣΕΦΟΝΗΣ) and XXXI (ΥΜΝΟΣ ΚΟΥΡΗΤΩΝ) — and the rule has not yet failed: through XLVIII, the hymns with no offering are exactly the hymns headed irregularly. At thirty-six letters it is also much the longest heading in the book — the next, ΔΗΜΗΤΡΟΣ ΕΛΕΥΣΙΝΙΑΣ at XL, runs to nineteen.

3.ξίφεσιν χαίρεις ἠδ’ αἵματι — swords and blood. The one hymn in the collection that asks for nothing at all also gives its god the bloodiest line; the petition at 7 is only that he come and bring gladness. αἵματι is Hermann’s for the codices’ plural αἵμασι.

5.θυρσεγχής, the thyrsos used as a spear, is Ruhnken’s — an attribution the lexica confirm independently of Abel, since LSJ records under θυρσαχθής that Ruhnken preferred θυρσεγχής at this line. Abel prints it flagged sic. So the epithet in the text is a modern coinage, found nowhere in Greek but here and only as a conjecture; the lexica file the transmitted form as θυρσαχθής, where Abel’s page gives θυρσεχθής.

4, Apparatus.Abel prints a second entry on this hymn whose numeral and lemma are hidden in the copy consulted by a folded paper flap lying across the line; only ‘Hermann] μανικέ.’ survives at its right-hand edge. The codices’ μανικέ can answer to nothing in this hymn but μαινόλα at line 4, so the entry is restored here between angle brackets and flagged. It should be checked against a second copy before the volume is finished.

About This Reading Edition

The eighty-eight Orphic Hymns and the Prayer to Musaeus, in Ancient Greek and English, with the supplied critical apparatus, explanatory notes, introduction, glossary and editorial matter.

Historical Text and Translation

Orphic Hymns, attributed to Orpheus. Greek text after Eugenius Abel, Orphica (Leipzig and Prague, 1885), pages 57–102.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The ancient Greek source and the 1885 Abel edition are public-domain material. The supplied new English translation and editorial matter are published with the site owner’s authorization. Both supplied original files remain unchanged.